


Hide No Longer

by thesunflowerchild



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Author has no idea, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Mild Angst, Oh, author apologizes, author doesn't know how to tag, bye, couldn't stay away from it sorry, idol!donghyuck, ish, makeup artist!taeyong, manager!johnny, manager!mark, thank you, uh, um, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:47:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25879909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesunflowerchild/pseuds/thesunflowerchild
Summary: “Of course he’s not your boyfriend or anything! How weird would that be!” The lady laughed, causing the entire audience to laugh as well.ORidol!donghyuck and manager!mark hate keeping their relationship hidden from the world.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 21
Kudos: 202





	Hide No Longer

**Author's Note:**

> so this is the third time i've written these notes because my stupid cat deleted them the first time and the second time i accidentally clicked the reload button
> 
> i'm super stressed out with work and school and family and life and stuff so please bear with me!
> 
> N E WAY  
> ~ i came up with this idea in the middle of the night a few weeks ago i just manifested it yesterday  
> ~ i was tempted to title it "weird idea that's been on my mind" because i suck at titles and that's what it's called in my docs  
> ~ unbetaed as always (unless... can i be my own beta?)  
> ~ let's hope this works this time  
> ~ ending is bad, just like all my endings  
> ~ yes
> 
> if you are a long hair donghyuck hater then please feel free to leave the premises now, we are a correct community here :D if you are a long hair donghyuck lover then please head on over to my [twitter](https://twitter.com/thesunniechild) so we can scream about that! 
> 
> please drop a kudos and a comment, even if it's just "nice" because that still makes my day!
> 
> stay beautiful <3

Donghyuck straightened his shirt, made sure his hair was nicely arranged, his converse scuff-free, and his jacket adjusted, and took a deep breath.

“Mr. Haechan, they’re ready for you,” came a soft voice from behind Donghyuck, startling him a little bit.

“Oh please, there’s no need for that Mr. stuff. Just call me Haechan.” Donghyuck smiled, clasping his hands in front of his middle in a slight bow. “Thank you.”

The attendant nodded and stuck her hand out, gesturing to the heavy black curtains that served as the boundary between the screaming fans and Donghyuck. He took another deep breath, smoothed down his jacket once more, plastered on a bright smile, and stepped through the curtains.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Haechan!” The interviewer bellowed, standing up to meet Donghyuck and lead him to the chair he’d be sitting in for the next hour. Below, hundreds of screaming, yelling, and even crying fans waved and jumped, clapped and danced, ecstatic to even be in the presence of their favorite singer.

“Welcome, welcome!” The interviewer said, making sure Donghyuck was seated before sitting down in her own cleaner, larger, more comfortable-looking chair. “Can I get you some water?” She asked, not waiting for Donghyuck’s answer before slamming down a water bottle with her show’s logo plastered over it right in front of him. “We’re so glad to have you here!” She half yelled, her smile stretched wide, white teeth shining too bright under the harsh artificial lighting.

Donghyuck smiled gently and nodded. “It’s nice to be here,” he responded politely.

The interviewer laughed and glanced to the audience, ensuring that they, too, laughed. “Are you nervous? I heard this is your first real interview!”

Donghyuck chuckled along, though uncomfortably. “Yes, well, I’ve been on a few radio shows, but nothing this big.”

“Well that’s fantastic!” The interviewer squealed loudly, tossing her long blonde ponytail over her shoulder. “I guess you could say we stole your interview virginity!” She howled with laughter, prompting the audience to do the same.

Donghyuck chuckled uncomfortably and quickly glanced around the studio.  _ Where is he? He said he’d come!  _ He thought frantically, already wanting nothing more than to get off the stage and far, far away from this crazy interviewer lady.

“So, Haechan, how long have you been in New York for? Is it colder than Korea?”

Donghyuck smiled politely. “I’ve been here for about a week and a half now, and yes, it’s a lot colder than Korea. It snows a lot, too.”

The interviewer laughed  _ again  _ and sighed almost wistfully. “I wish we didn’t have as much snow, though! It makes for bad traffic!”

Donghyuck hummed, a small fake smile on his lips. “I never see snow, so it’s been nice to play in it in the park.”

“How cute!” The lady cooed, causing the rest of the audience to coo along with her. “You went to the park to play in the snow?!”

Donghyuck nodded. “We had a snowball fight and built snowmen.”

“Sweet!” The blonde lady took an exaggerated breath and changed the subject. “So, Haechan, tell us the inspiration behind your latest album,  _ stuck on you _ ! It’s your first album that’s completely recorded in English! And let me be the first to tell you, it’s wonderful! Your English pronunciation is great, and all the songs are really good!”

“Thank you,” Donghyuck smiled again, still scanning the crowd in front of him for a specific pair of eyes. “I had a lot of help on it, but I think the album turned out pretty good.”

“Oh really! The one and only Haechan needed help on an album?!” The lady gasped, a scandalized look on her face.

“Well,” Donghyuck began, trying extremely hard to not let the annoyance shine through in his voice. “I’m not a native English speaker, so I had  _ a lot  _ of help with learning to read, write, speak,  _ and  _ sing in English. But I had a good teacher.” Donghyuck smiled, a warm feeling blossoming in his chest at the memories of recording this album washed over him. “It was truly an experience.”

“Wow, that’s incredible!” The interviewer bellowed, moving to the edge of her seat, causing Donghyuck to get uncomfortable again. “And you speak it so well! I would have never known you’re actually Asian!”

Donghyuck couldn’t hold back his scoff. “Well I actually happen to look pretty Asian,” he bit back - rather passive aggressively, but this woman was  _ so _ annoying.

“You do!” The woman nearly yelled. “So who’s your teacher?”

Donghyuck once again looked back out at the audience, inwardly pleading that he’d catch those soft brown almond eyes. He was about to give up and unwillingly return to the interviewer’s question, when -  _ there _ .

Mark’s soft eyes stared back at him, his smile getting bigger when he realized that his boyfriend had recognized him. He waved smally, not wanting to attract attention to himself, and blew a small kiss in Donghyuck’s direction.

In that moment, all of the uncomfortableness and anxiety faded, and Donghyuck felt  _ so  _ much better now that he knew his boyfriend was right there with him. He grinned inwardly and turned back to the interviewer, confidence restored.

“My English teacher?” He asked.

“Yes, please tell us!”

“Well,” Donghyuck breathed, sparing another glance to Mark. “My English teacher was the best possible teacher. He spent quite some time here in New York when he was young, actually, so he’s exceptionally fluent in the language. He’s someone very close to me, so he didn’t mind helping me, and it was a lot of fun. I honestly don’t know if there’s any other English teacher better than the one I was lucky enough to have.”

Donghyuck cursed in his head as he felt his cheeks heat up. He stole a quick look at Mark, who’s cheeks were also dusted in a light pinkish color.

“Well it sure sounds like your English teacher taught you well!” The lady smiled so hard it looked like her mouth took up the entire bottom half of her face. “So why did you want to record an entire album in English when you’re Korean?”

Donghyuck in Mark’s direction  _ again _ and the older reassuringly smiled back at him. “Well, most of the songs came from someone incredibly special to me. He wrote them, and because his singing voice sounds like a dying cow, we agreed that I’d sing them. I wrote three of them, but the rest of the songs are his. I guess you could call this a collaborative album, but he didn’t want his name on anything but the writing credits.”

“Oh!” The interviewer gasped, holding up a copy of Donghyuck’s album. She opened it, flipped past the photobook, and went to the last page where the lyrics and song credits were. “You mean this ‘MARK’ guy?!”

Shocked, Donghyuck flicked his eyes over to his boyfriend sitting in the front row and made a subtle face. Mark looked back with wide eyes and made a slight  _ no  _ motion with his hands. Donghyuck turned back to the lady and cleared his throat, scrambling to recover from that surprise. “Yes, Mark is my lyricist.”

“Ooh! And you said he was  _ ‘incredibly special’ _ !” The lady waggled her eyebrows in a suggestive manner and immediately laughed it off. “I’m just kidding, hun!” She practically yelled. “Of course he’s not your  _ boyfriend _ or anything! How weird would that be!” Flipping her ponytail again, she howled with laughter and faced the audience, sending them into chaos, all laughing hysterically.

Donghyuck tensed and clasped his hands in his lap, uncomfortable all over again. He frantically searched for Mark’s steadying eyes in the ocean of mocking fans and when he found them, the hurt that broke through was enough to cause him to freeze, his breath suspended in the air, fingertips turning blue from how hard he was holding his hands. Donghyuck opened and closed his mouth like a beached fish but nothing came out. He panicked again and turned away, angling his knees away from the audience so he wouldn’t have to look at Mark’s wounded expression.

The lady finally stopped laughing her ass off and turned back to Donghyuck, wiping a fake tear off her cheek, smudging her too-pale foundation and bright red blush. “How  _ funny _ !” She took a deep breath and straightened her skirt -  _ much too short to be considered appropriate _ , Donghyuck thought, but the United States were  _ SO  _ different from his home.

“Don't you think so?” The lady asked, not giving Donghyuck a chance to answer before moving on to the next question. “So, are you going back to Korea after New York, or are you going anywhere else?”

Donghyuck took a shaky breath and let go of his own hands. They were trembling and weak. “I-I have a concert Thursday night in Chicago.”

“Ooh, I love Chicago!” The interviewer gabbed, flapping her hands in a weird way. “It’s a great place to shop!”

Donghyuck smiled a tight-lipped smile and broke eye contact with her, looking past her at the over-decorated wall at the far end of the studio. “We’re going to Canada soon, too.”

“Oh, I’ve never been, but I’m sure there’s good places to shop there too!”

Donghyuck nodded and wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans.

“So Haechan, I thought we’d play a little game of toss the question ball! Whatever question your thumb lands on, you answer that question! I’ll play with you too!” The lady then proceeded to throw the beach ball with sharpie all over it at Donghyuck.

Donghyuck looked down at the question under his thumb. He took a deep breath and slapped his fake smile back onto his face to endure the rest of the agonizing hour.

***

“And this, ladies and gentlemen, has been Korea’s hottest singer, Haechan!” The blond interviewer bellowed while the audience roared. She gestured over to Donghyuck to bow, and he did, and then there were security guards whisking him away backstage. Donghyuck desperately searched for Mark in the crowded bustle, eager to be in his boyfriend’s arms after such an anxious hour. He turned a corner to get to the dressing room when - there he was.

Donghyuck didn’t care any longer who was watching and ran to Mark, the older letting out a soft  _ oof  _ as their chests collided in a tight hug.

Mark was the first to pull away and he looked at Donghyuck, concern quickly filling his eyes when he saw Donghyuck’s expression.

The younger, his face fallen and tears pooling, buried his face into Mark’s neck as he backed into the nearest room, secluded from everyone else backstage. He sat down and Donghyuck followed, slumping onto Mark’s lap, still clinging to his neck like a baby koala.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” Mark asked in Korean, soft and familiar, while stroking Donghyuck’s spine lightly.

Donghyuck pulled away, spilled tears slightly smudging the eyeliner his makeup artist, Taeyong, had perfected. “I’m sorry,” he almost whimpered. “I’m so,  _ so _ , sorry,”

Mark made a noise of confusion and tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean? What is there to apologize for?”

“What that lady said about you. It hurt you, I could see it.”

“Baby,” Mark smiled gently. “That wasn’t your fault. She couldn’t have known, anyway.”

Donghyuck shifted. “I just hate that she didn’t. I hate that no one knows except for you and me. I hate that we have to keep our relationship secret, even from those who we love.”

Mark hummed thoughtfully. “It’s the only way I know how to protect you. What are people going to say if they know that Haechan has been dating his manager for four years already? I don’t want you to get hurt because of it, I don’t want you to lose your job because of it, Hyuckie.”

Donghyuck rested his forehead on Mark’s, closing his eyes and breathing in his brunette boyfriend’s comforting smell. “I want to stand on the tallest mountain in the world and scream my love for you as loud as I can. That way everyone can hear and everyone will know.”

“Know what?”

“That I love you with my whole entire heart and I never want to be apart from you.”

Donghyuck sighed sadly when Mark’s lips met his in a tender, bittersweet kiss. 

“I want to do the same, baby, believe me. But I have to protect you. That’s my job not only as a boyfriend, but also as your manager.”

“I know.” Donghyuck pulled back and cupped Mark’s face in his hands. “I love you.”

Mark tucked a silver curl behind Donghyuck’s ear. “I love you too.” He took a deep breath and blew it out, causing both of their hair to lift a little and a small giggle to come from the back of Donghyuck’s throat. “We should probably get back to  _ your _ dressing before Johnny and Taeyong start to worry.”

Mark helped his petite boyfriend off his lap and held his hand while he stood up.

“I still think it’s funny that the company sees the need to give my manager a manager,” Donghyuck laughed, talking about Johnny. “It’s like they knew that you’d be practically useless for anything other than lyrics and cuddles.”

“Hey!” Mark playfully slapped Donghyuck’s hand away from him. “I am not incompetent!”

Donghyuck laughed again and twirled away from Mark. “I never said you were,” he sang.

Mark grabbed his wrist and pulled his boyfriend back into his chest. “Let’s take care of this smudged eyeliner before we go back to Taeyong, hmm?” He ever so gently wiped the blue under Donghyuck’s eyes until it looked acceptable again. Hands trailing down, Mark carefully straightened Donghyuck’s shirt until it sat correctly and the wrinkles were gone. He smiled shyly as he brushed the smaller’s hair out of his eyes and gave him a quick peck on the lips before turning him around and lightly patting him on the bottom. “Let’s go, Haechan-ah.”

Donghyuck smiled bitterly at the sound of his boyfriend saying his idol name in such a professional way, but ultimately, he knew it was necessary. 

When they stepped back into the hallway that had calmed down, Mark led Donghyuck back in the direction of his dressing room. When they got there, Taeyong was madly pacing around the room, biting his nails in that unruly habit of his.

“ _ There _ you are!” He exclaimed, flapping his hands about. “Johnny got worried so he went to look for you!” Taeyong grabbed Donghyuck’s shoulders and leaned in to examine his face. “Your eyes are pink and that eyeliner is smudged.”

Donghyuck shrugged. “It was hot onstage,” he lied, not glancing at Mark, because he knew if he did, his cover would be blown.

Taeyong hummed and squinted. “I guess so,” he shrugged as well and then tugged Donghyuck over to a makeup chair. “Let’s take that off and freshen up a bit, shall we?”

Donghyuck nodded.

Right then, Johnny came through the door, talking about how he hadn’t seen Donghyuck and Mark anywhere when he halted in the middle of his sentence, glaring at Mark. “Where have you two been?” 

“Haechan-ah got lost and I found him.” Mark lied easily. “Oh also, he mentioned how he didn’t like how this lady treated him, and asked us to give a bad review of her. Make sure no one else gets treated this way.”

“Bro, she sucks.” Johnny agreed, nodding with his eyes wide.

Donghyuck sniggered from his seat, causing Taeyong to roll his eyes and huff in feigned annoyance. “She really did. Imagine being made fun of for having a boyfriend. I guess it’s a good thing no one knows about you two except Johnny and I,” he tutted casually.

Donghyuck’s heart stopped. He looked in the mirror and Mark had the same expression on his face.

“What?”

“Oh come on, you think you were being slick? All those times Mark wrote lyrics and you sang them? All the laughing and closeness on the plane? Eye-fucking from across the room? Red eyes and smudged eyeliner? Not so secretly holding hands in the car?” Taeyong laughed good-heartedly. “Did you know that hotel walls are actually super thin?”

Donghyuck looked down, his cheeks red. “Hyung,” he whined, embarrassed.

“Yeah, you guys are really bad at keeping secrets from us.” Johnny guffawed, slapping his thigh.

Taeyong spun the chair around and crouched down to meet Donghyuck’s eyes. “You know we still love and support you, right?”

“Yeah, we could care less that you guys are dating! We actually thought you’d be really good for each other for a long time before we actually found out that you were actually dating.”

Mark laughed in bewilderment and sat up straighter. “Really? So you wouldn’t mind if I just ran over and swooped Donghyuck up in a huge hug and kissed him on the lips for like five minutes?”

Taeyong smiled fondly and stepped away from the makeup chair. “Don’t ask us, he’s  _ your  _ boyfriend,” 

Mark grinned and ran to Donghyuck, not hearing what Taeyong had to say anymore, and the younger jumped into Mark’s waiting arms. They laughed as they spun around in glee, so happy to not have to hide their long-term relationship any longer - at least with the most important people.

Donghyuck took Mark’s face into his own when the older stopped spinning them around. “I love you so much,” he whispered breathlessly, eyes bright and happy.

“This might not be as effective as standing on top of the tallest mountain and screaming your love for me, but you can still yell it in here,” Mark suggested, setting Donghyuck down safely on the floor.

Donghyuck let his head fall back and grinned at Taeyong and Johnny who were watching over them fondly and also disgustingly. “I love Mark Lee!” He yelled as loud as he could, whipping his head back - almost hitting Mark in the forehead - and kissing him fiercely.

Mark kissed back until they both had to break apart for air. “Lee Donghyuck, I love you with my whole entire heart and I want the entire world to know that you are mine and mine alone. Let’s go public.”

The younger nodded wildly, silver curls bouncing all over the place and eyes shining in a way Mark had never seen before. “I love you Markie.”

Johnny cleared his throat, which got the couple’s attention and they looked in his direction. “Not to eavesdrop or anything, but I just heard that you want to go public with your relationship - which I support! I just think it would be a good idea to talk to the company first, so they can make me your primary manager. That way it wouldn’t affect Mark too much.”

“Ooh, good idea! Then Mark can live his happy little life with Hyuck and not have to worry about backlash.” Taeyong jumped in, excitedly hopping on his toes. 

Mark beamed back at the two and turned back to his shorter boyfriend. “You hear that Hyuckie? We can finally stand on a mountaintop and scream our love for each other for the entire world to hear.” He kissed the younger’s forehead tenderly and caressed his cheekbone with the lightest fingers. “ _ Finally _ ,” he whispered.

“I guess maybe we have this rude interviewer to thank,” Donghyuck hummed, rolling his eyes.

“No, she made fun of you, we’re reporting that.” Mark solidified as he nodded his head. “What she said was not okay.”

“Okay,” Donghyuck agreed, not caring about anything other than not having to hide anymore. “Mark, I love you.”

The older laughed, head thrown back and eyes tightly squeezed shut. “I love you too, baby. I love you so much. And I can’t wait for everyone else to know just how much I do.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> kudos & comments = me happy  
> me happy = me want to write more  
> me write more = you happy  
> you happy = kudos & comments
> 
> repeat :)


End file.
